RAYMOND, Maine — Divers with the Maine Warden Service on Friday morning recovered the body of a missing canoeist who apparently fell out of his boat Thursday night on Panther Pond in Raymond.
Christopher Hughes, 52, of Trumbull, Connecticut, went missing at about 10 p.m. Thursday after he went canoeing along the eastern shore of the pond and then found himself in trouble.
“Friends soon heard distressed hollering from the man and called for help,” Cpl. John MacDonald, spokesman for the warden service, said.
He was staying with a group of coworkers and family at a relative’s camp while working in the area.
“He was not wearing a life jacket, and we’re looking at alcohol as a contributing factor,” MacDonald said.
Raymond firefighters and game wardens searched the area Thursday night and found the man’s overturned canoe but no other sign of him.
Hughes’ body was recovered at around 10 a.m.
“It was about 200 feet from shore in about 16 feet of water,” MacDonald said.